Nowadays – and for some time now – the internet is widely recognized and accepted as an essential tool for any business looking to make it happen. Whether it is for marketing purposes or customer retention, the internet is a way for you to interact, build and maintain relationships, and eventually make your profit. One of the best tools of maximizing the performance of your entity online is using Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Modern search engines run on sophisticated algorithms, which determine the appropriate ranking according to all kinds of variables and elements. The ways in which SEO is implemented ranges from editing the actual content of a webpage, through editing the code in which it is written, to promoting links to and from the webpage in question. In other words, the better SEO you have, the higher you will be ranked on the lists of various search engine results.

A higher ranking directly affects the amount of traffic your website stands to receive, and increases the number of potential clients or customers you will acquire. As such, SEO is an inseparable part of maintaining an online presence, and it applies to businesses, organizations, and individuals alike. If you are looking for better traffic numbers, SEO is the way to achieve that.

What Is SEO Writing & Copywriting?

SEO Writing

SEO writing is a form of writing which is formatted (to some extent) in such a way which heightens its visibility to search engine algorithms, and which is conducive to better ranking options.

An SEO writer will take many different factors into account when writing text. This includes headlines and subheadings, word and paragraph count, specific keywords and phrases, and descriptions of the piece in question. These are all elements which search engine algorithms are on the lookout for.

This type of writing helps Google and similar search engines recognize the text – and consequently its parent website – as one which is relevant, and which will be able to answer the search query inputted by the user.

Some consider SEO copy writing is be geared more towards marketing, but there isn’t really a difference between the two. The difference between ordinary writing and copy writing is indeed vast, but when it comes to SEO, both terms basically refer to the same thing: a way to write which alerts engines to the presence of the website, which facilitates higher ranking, and drives quality traffic to the website in question.

What Are SEO Tools? How Can They Help My Business?

SEO For Small Businesses

SEO is the manipulation of data. In order to know how to manipulate the data, it is essential to understand your status, set goals, and monitor your situation continuously.

As a wise man once said: if you don’t know what you’re aiming at, you won’t know where to shoot. SEO tools allow the user to analyze the website’s position, and to diagnose and treat any issues which may arise. They also provide data related to links, keywords, content visibility and readability (or lack thereof) for robots, and crawl data.

Incidentally, “crawling” is the process of using robots to scan websites for the purposes of ranking and data accumulation.

The ways in which this can help your business are many and varied. As previously mentioned, accurate SEO can increase visibility, traffic, links to and from the business’s website. Proper SEO will, ultimately, keep in you better business over time. The tools will let you know how you are doing, what your numbers are like, what your focus ought to be in regards to keeping up and elevating your search result relevance, etc.

What Is An SEO Manager?

SEO Manager For Small Businesses

An SEO manager is akin to a marketing manager, only this particular manager’s forte is SEO. By utilizing managerial and marketing skills – and marrying them with in-depth knowledge of the internet’s ins and outs – a proper SEO manager establishes goals, outlines plans for achieving said goals in detail.

The manager should motivate his SEO team to accomplish the goals and reach the target with maximum efficiency and progress.

What Is White Hat SEO?

White Hat SEO (also known as ‘ethical SEO’) is the practice of implementing SEO by using conventional tools and methods; ones which are accepted by the rest of the industry as legitimate. It is also characterized by creating content meant for human reading, rather than content geared primarily towards robot crawlers.

Using keywords, building links and back linking, writing blogs meant to be read by visitors – these are all considered White Hat SEO practices. White Hat SEO also makes it its business to abide by search engine rules and guidelines, and follow the industry’s etiquette.

White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO

What Is Black Hat SEO?

Black Hat SEO is – you guessed it – the very opposite of White Hat SEO. It is also called unethical SEO. Black Hat SEO is the implementation of SEO in ways which are considered objectionable and at the very least “iffy”. In some cases, this is done by utter disregard and pure violation of guidelines and rules set by search engines.

Examples of such tactics are: keyword stuffing, use of invisible text, redesigning and changing pages and their content (once they have been ranked high enough), and even adding unrelated keywords to pages simply for ranking purposes.

If you know what it is your clientele wants, and are interested in providing it for them, you will be able to use SEO to rank higher and become more visible to prospective customers. This effectively helps your business grow, and this is what helps small businesses to become larger businesses.

A small business which manages to find its way to the top spots on Google gains almost instant credibility in the eyes of many others, be they competitors or would-be customers. We all know the stats… unfortunately, more often than not, most small business will not survive their third year of operation.

So many businesses, especially small ones, close in the U.S. on a daily basis. Sometimes it is due to bad luck; sometimes it is for lack of trying and for laziness; sometimes it is because of improper management. There are tons of reasons, and I won’t presume to be able to name them all or accurately point out the ways in which the failure happened.

The ones who do make it, though, and who continue to grow, are ones who are giving their clients and customers what they want, and who are well-funded. I am sure you heard the cliche: it takes money to make money. Well, it’s true.

It takes more than money, though. It also takes real dedication – and at times lots of patience – to see progress and growth in your field. Conversely, there are times when a stroke of good luck or an accidental advertisement suddenly catapults you to the top. You never know when it is going to hit you, but SEO helps to facilitate that, so when it does happen, you will be ready to cash in and use your new status as leverage for further development.

White Hat SEO in particular is geared towards the long haul, and it plays a pivotal role in any small business’s survival. Those who do it right, and who track their progress and adapt accordingly, will be able to weather the rough patches which are sure to come.

Conclusion

SEO is the key to navigating your way through the stormy seas of the internet. With so much competition, and technology moving so fast you can barely keep your eyes on the ball, high-quality SEO is a surefire way to ensure that your website will be easy to find, readable, valuable, and credible.

In many ways, the world of internet marketing is a game. It’s almost all virtual in essence, all zeros and ones. Yet it takes real know-how, real skill, and no small amount of ability, in order to learn the rules, apply yourself and your team in the best way possible, and manipulate the numbers and letters in such a way that will provide honest results that can be measured in ranking, in traffic, and eventually in dollars and further progress.